This Music Composer Bought An Entire Hill And Turned It Into A Wildlife Sanctuary!

Indian music composer Abhishek Ray takes music seriously, but not as seriously as he takes wildlife. "The forest has its own sounds and those are the best that I have heard," he says. "I do not understand why man has to monopolise land and water resources in the forest. The number of resorts around the Kosi River at Corbett Tiger Reserve has gone up by great numbers. The first thing that these resorts do is sanitise the grounds and make it animal-proof and then they capture the water banks and make it exclusive to humans. They live off the wildlife as yet, they leave no room for wildlife to survive!"

A successful music composer in Mumbai, Abhishek Ray has been volunteering as a tracker for tigers and leopards for the Indian government since the age of 12. "My job took me to many remote areas and as I grew older I wanted to invest in a forest. I kept scouting for opportunities to invest in wasted agricultural lands," says Abhishek. "I found this land about ten years ago. There is a lot of hoof animal activity on it and this had degraded over years. I loved this land from the moment I set eyes upon it. It is right next to the forested area and is part of the tiger corridor with one side of a hill. I had no human neighbours to trouble the animals who would come to this land after regeneration."

Ray invested all his life's saving in buying the land from the families of the villages. Seven years and several greatly detailed plans later, the forest seems to have taken on life with a name - Sitabani.

The water body he created attracted herds of deer

Abhishek Ray

"There is a temple in these parts called Sitabani Temple and the locals believe that Sita spent some years here after leaving Ram to raise her sons, Luv and Kush. I loved the story and decided to name the forest after it. I like phonetically pleasant names like the poet Gulzar with whom I had worked some years ago," he shares. "The first thing I did was to make sure villagers and their cattle did not use the land in a manner as unsustainable as they had been doing. I also know that water is a magnet for life and developed a man-made perennial water body in the reserve. It was a matter of months but all the animals in the forest came to know that this reserve had a reliable water source where they would not be threatened. Soon, the man-made lake took on the form of a natural pond because of the bamboos I had planted around it, and became a haunt for all the animals,"he shares. "The next step was to rid the land of a plant parasite called Lantenna. It is very difficult to get rid of it as you have to cut it, hang it inverted for some months for it to dry out completely and then burn it. If any of the steps is not complete then the parasite returns to kill all other forms of plants or grass that tries to grow. When I finally succeeded, I planted several varieties of grass and endemic fruit plants like amaltas, sycus, jackfruit, mango and in the drier portions, jamun - which helps in increasing moisture in the soil."

Abhishek Ray

His consistent efforts over seven years have helped give a new lease of life to the land with big cats, deer, monkeys and over 600 species of birds visiting his reserve. "Do you have pen and paper at hand because the list of rare sightings is a long one," he laughs. The Indian Pita, Forest Owlet, Asian Bard Owlet, Brown Fishing Owl, Grey Hooded Warbler, Crest-Serpent Eagle, Steppy Eagle, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Long Legged Buzzard apart from many kinds of Flycatchers, Bee eaters, Woodpeckers and Orioles, are among the frequent visitors to the reserve today.

After seven years, the forest still grows and birds nest in his bamboo-made homes

Abhishek Ray

The painful process of regeneration of the Sitabani Reserve is nearly complete and Abhishek Ray is quite clear that he does not plan to open the gates to everyone. "I don't mind genuine birdwatchers and nature-lovers to experience Sitabani but there will be no loud music and bright lights here," he says. "I do make money being a music composer in Mumbai but I would also like to invest in tourism at Sitabani by extending an honest experience with nature. There is no wi-fi or television here. This is the land shared by humans and animals and humans will have to adjust to the jungle, not vice versa."

He says that he wants to hold out for nature to take its own course for another six months to a year before letting people inside Sitabani.

"Sitabani has a lonesome aura. It is breezy through the year and the sounds of elephants trumpeting and birds chirping and the myriad of other calls. I compose about 8-10 songs when I am at Sitabani and then head to Mumbai for the technical support to complete them,"he says. "Inspiration comes like droplets from the sky in Sitabani," he says. "How many people know that the Indian Cheetah has been hunted into execution and the Leopard is following suit?" he asks. "Humans have been invading animal territories for years and then blaming the tigers and leopards to be the infiltrators. This has to stop."

Abhishek Ray

The big cats have also been visiting, some quite regularly

Abhishek Ray

"When the forest regenerated and the animals started to visit the water body regularly. I would hear the mating calls of two tigers in two corners of the forest. With the passage of time they would move closer, and then they finally stopped when they found each other," he shares. Abhishek shares a special bond with a resident tigress who has displayed complete trust in him, a matter of great pride for the musician. The other wild residents and visitors have been supportive as well. For example, when Abhishek started setting up bamboo homes for the birds, they in turn showed him the use of a local cotton flax that they used to make their nests warmer.

Abhishek Ray

"After the nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986, the government was forced to evacuate humans to save them from the impact of the radioactive particles in the atmosphere,"Abhishek says. "It is 30 years since the accident and the region from which humans were removed owing to the mishap has now become the hotspot for European wildlife. The largest known animal in the European wild was the red fox but the Chernobyl region saw the return of the wolf, deer and other larger animals. The incident proves that the impact of humans is more damaging to wildlife than nuclear reactors."